Sheila Schuller leads her church to new site

File photo from March 11, 2012, when Sheila Schuller Coleman, then Senior Pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, surprised the congregation by announcing it was her last service at the Garden Grove church.MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The Hope Center of Christ, which started in a rented movie theater in March 2012, is moving to an industrial site on Batavia Street in Orange and taking over the lease of another church, according to Hope Center's Facebook page.

"We received the keys to our new church home just two weeks ago! And what we have accomplished in that short time is amazing!!" Schuller Coleman posted Wednesday on her church's Facebook site.

For most of the past year, Schuller Coleman has led her ministry from the Anaheim Marriott Suites Hotel in Garden Grove after first starting at the AMC Theater inside the Outlets at Orange mall — a symbolic move reminiscent of how her father, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, began his ministry more than 50 years ago in a drive-in theater. That church evolved into the Crystal Cathedral Ministries in the architecturally renowned glass church, home to the popular Hour of Power religious television program.

In a sense, both the Crystal Cathedral Ministries and Hope Center of Christ, also known as Hope Center OC, are starting anew this summer.

Schuller Coleman did not return phone calls about her new church. Her husband, Jim Coleman, declined to be interviewed.

Jim Coleman was fired early last March as director of creative services for the Crystal Cathedral Ministries.Schuller Coleman "was and wasn't" fired from her job as senior pastor, she said in an October interview.

Schuller Coleman said she chose to leave the Crystal Cathedral right after the cathedral's board of directors fired her team, including her husband, her sister, Gretchen Penner, and her brother-in-law, Jim Penner. Both Penners held leadership positions on the Hour of Power program. She also said she could not stay because the board was mistreating her father.

"My whole entire purpose ever since I was a little girl was to help the poor and honor my father. To stay would have dishonored my father," Schuller Coleman said in October. "At the same time they did terminate every one of my team. They tied my hands behind my back. There was no way I could do ministry the way I could do ministry."

A few days after her family was terminated and a day after her parents, Robert H. and Arvella Schuller, resigned from the board of directors, Schuller Coleman announced from the pulpit that she was leaving the Crystal Cathedral campus and taking the congregation with her. About 100 people followed her the next Sunday to her new Hope Center of Christ.

Following her announcement, Schuller Coleman said she received a termination letter from the cathedral. She got a job as a substitute teacher and immediately plunged into her new church.

"All the lessons that my dad taught me have been worth their weight in gold," she said at the time. "Dad said: 'When things are tough, go out and help other people.' We are blessed. We have our faith. We have our health. We have our family."

On the Hope Center's Facebook page, Schuller Coleman described her church's work in the past year, including its mission to feed the hungry and pray for those in need through "dedicated prayer warriors."

The new facility has a kitchen, and church members plan to take over an "I Was Hungry" program from the Christian Life Fellowship, the church that previously resided at 1090 N. Batavia. That program provides groceries for 40 families every week.

Hope Center leaders, which include the Penners, also plan to open a thrift shop in the nearly 12,000-square-foot building, according to Facebook posts. Members have been busy renovating the structure, which will include a "cry room" for families with babies and a Sunday school.

The move also coincides with a personal move from Schuller Coleman's long-time home in Orange, which she said last fall she and her husband were forced to sell due to their loss of employment.

"Two new homes! Within days of each other! SO much change! So keyed up! Everybody is so excited!!" she wrote Wednesday.

File photo from March 11, 2012, when Sheila Schuller Coleman, then Senior Pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, surprised the congregation by announcing it was her last service at the Garden Grove church. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman, who broke off last year from the Crystal Cathedral Ministries her father founded, is moving her congregation to a new more permanent location, 1090 N. Batavia in Orange, this Sunday. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
File photo of Sheila Schuller Coleman, right, with her father, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, left, as she delivers a sermon in 2010. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
AP file photo of Sheila Schuller Coleman. She poses for a picture at the Crystal Cathedral church in Garden Grove in June 2009, before taking over her father's megachurch and its famous "Hour of Power" television ministry at a time of both financial and family crisis. In the spring of 2012, Schuller Coleman abruptly left the church and took some 100 congregants with her to a new ministry: the Hope Center of Christ. After holding services in a movie theater and a hotel, she's moving her church to a new more permanent site this Sunday. CHRIS CARLSON, AP
The stunning Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove was bought during bankruptcy court proceedings by the Catholic Diocese of Orange. The Catholic Church will take over the site next month. The cathedral will be called Christ Cathedral. Meanwhile, the Crystal Cathedral Ministries will be renamed Shepherd's Grove and that congregation will move to the church now occupied by the St. Callistus Catholic congregation. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
File photo from 2010 of Sheila Schuller Coleman and her brother-in-law, Jim Penner, who was then executive producer of the "Hour of Power" television program. Coleman and Penner are no longer affiliated with the Crystal Cathedral Ministries. Both are ministers of the Hope Center of Christ, which this Sunday moves to a new site in Orange. ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman, who broke off last year from the Crystal Cathedral Ministries her father founded, is moving her congregation to a new more permanent location, 1090 N. Batavia in Orange, this Sunday. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.